Open Sky at Kunstmuseum Thun- Curated by Helen Hirsh
April 19 – June 15, 2008

Simone Aaberg Kærn (born in 1969 in Copenhagen) picks out the dream of flying as the central theme in her works and broaches the role of women in flying. With various media like photography, video and object art, she deals with the social, historical and political dimensions of aviation and joins them together in installations in the exhibition room.
In the process, the thoughts of unbound freedom in the open sky that is associated with flying is a recurring theme in the oeuvre of Aaberg Kærn. In 2002, the artist and trained pilot flew in her small plane from Copenhagen over the Hindukush to Kabul to realise the dream of flying of an Afghani girl – an event that became an adventurous and risky journey interlinked with all the hurdles of today’s civil aviation. Also, the motif of the woman in the male-dominated aviation is perceived in many of her works. Specially for the exhibition at Kunstmuseum Thun, her first solo exhibition in Switzerland, she has added the portrait of Swiss women military pilots to her work with American and Russian women military pilots of the Second World War, Afghani women helicopter pilots and Turkish women fighter pilots.
Sky and space are playing fields for power and politics, but they are also equally the place of freedom and self-realisation.

3 channel Video installation with sound, made from the original research material to SISTERS IN THE SKY- paintings. Recordings from visit to MOSCOV 1996 and Archive footage.
Was displayed at OPEN SKY malmø Konsthall and OPEN SKY Kunstmuseum Thun.

Sisters in the Sky
45 painted portraits of female Pilots on Active Service during World War II…installed with sound.
World War II was the first war in which air power played a decisive role. However, it was not the first time women served as combat pilots. World War I saw the first aerial combat, and among the pilots there were a few women.
After World War I, it was clear that aviation had developed from a mere sport to a factor of definite social importance both in civilian life and in the armed forces.
The new possibilities in aviation seemed unlimited. And in the late 1930s young people all over the world flocked to the flying schools, where they were trained under programs often subsidized by the government.
This exhibit shows a small selection of the women who flew during World War II.